Almost everything I ever read or heard about Sufism was impressive in its depth of insight. Rumi, for example. It draws from the same source as all the esoteric traditions. I also thought the page you added was a good read and solidly founded on non dual wisdom.

The miscue in my reply had to do with how we conduct ourselves in Samsara, which wasn’t necessary to get into, having had the unfortunate effect of diverting the attention from the point I was trying to make.

The following might help to rehabilitate that point..

Circa mid 90’s, someone wrote to me complaining about how to effectively handle some difficult problems they were having without compromising their spiritual connection. I replied (the result of a spontaneous channeling out of compassion for them), “Act as though everything matters; *be* as though nothing does.”

This underscores the dilemma we’re facing as seekers, realizers, and even jnanis, and I believe it represents the higher purpose of this dark age of the Kaliyug: a novel refusal to tolerate blanket denials of relative world events unfolding, made by proponents (myself included in my first 28 years of teaching; and modified in the last 20) claiming the problem lies exclusively within the individual’s perception.

We veterans well know the talk about resting in the Self, while the world with all its problems and wonders never really existed to begin with. How, in fact, nothing can be said or even thought about the Real at all..It being ineffable, attributeless, inscrutable, *unknowable*. (As I alluded to, I [still] default to this, which is indisputable and incontrovertible.)

And yet, some day a week later will arrive and we get a call from our son in jail, charged with a felony for selling narcotics.

The best of us are still beset with worldly responsibilities. One has a family to care for, a livelihood to make, even people on the metaphysical path to guide, as you yourself and Melj are doing. Or one can become a sanyassin, renouncing the world…but have they really?…they still need to *do things*:eat, sleep, etc…and if not eat, breathe [in sahaja samadhi], if not breathe, stop the heart, while the brain is kept alive from the pineal, which in turn receives its packets of information (pranava OM vibration) from the Buddha Self seated in the cave of the heart, etc.

Denying that such circumstances exist is, imo, being disingenuous.

Nevertheless, and once again I’ll say, I quite agree (and very much actively practice) that we in reality are That IAm, and all else is ultimately empty. *Yet and however*, it still manages to greet us, and occasionally–*albeit quite temporarily*–seems to even derail us.

This is what prompted me to get involved with your forum. I had read Melj’s post referring to Castaneda’s JOURNEY TO IXTLAN, coupled with posts on Advaita, the Dammapada, etc.

I believed, and still do, that there is a rare degree of openmindedness here, with an embracing of eclectic approaches…much like the wide ranging perennial philosophy or even theosophy (both having been, in their core teachings, chanelled from akasha).

As I see it, there’s a significant obstacle in place. Perhaps it’s by design, and left to the entry-level jnani to discover on his own. A matter, if revealed, properly cognized and surmounted, will accelerate his spiritual focus virtually overnight!

The obstacle I’m referring to is an unwillingness to acknowledge what I contend is a virtual divine flaw, intrinsic to the relative *as well as* the Absolute! I say this for the simple reason (based on the simplest observation) that the realm of Manifestation, whether regarded as pseudo-real or abjectly unreal (Maya or mithya), is the result of a latent desire in Brahman (as revealed in the Rig Veda’s Creation Song), which by definition is tantamount to It possessing an imperfection. And regardless of the intellectual somersaults that attempt to redirect the problem as a misunderstanding in one’s perception, or ostrich-like bury its head in the sand pretending it doesn’t exist, doesn’t remove the glitch, extraordinarily subtle though such glitch might be.

The kernel of illusion lies within Existence Itself. If not, where could it have possibly come from?

How would acknowledging this help us?

As I alluded to in my first comment, it would provide relief from a tendency toward rigidity and evoke a more fluid response in the face of life’s inevitable travails and moral responsibilities, where if/when one fails to meet a given circumstance with the expectation of impeccability, they’ll be less likely to succumb to the idea that imperfection doesn’t–in fact, *cannot*–befit a man of knowledge or enlightenment.